Robotics technologies are essential to shape the European Union’s development and future, and to push its digitalisation. RI4EU is the gateway to EU robotics initiatives aiming to bring together European DIHs in robotics. Funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 (H2020) framework programme (RODIN project), its objective is to help robotics DIH networks to cooperate to boost the competitiveness of the European robotics market in four priority application areas: agile production, infrastructure inspection, and maintenance, healthcare, and agri-food.
RI4EU gateway will organise two workshops at the European Robotics Forum 2022, in collaboration with the five EU-H2020 Innovation Actions - Trinity, Agrobofood, DIH-HERO, DIH2 and RIMA.
DIH robotics networks: Success Stories and collaborative approaches, 30 June, 08:30
Robotics technologies boost productivity, growth and competitiveness while addressing societal challenges. Initiated by the five innovation actions (IA), the DIH networks have built communities of regional DIH and supported technology transfer experiments with SMEs. The goal of this session is to share success stories of each IA, followed by a panel discussion on the transferability of technologies among different application areas, with a follow up public Q&A.
DIH robotics networks: lessons learned, impact and the way forward, 30 Jun, 10:20
How can DIH networks help Digital Innovation Hubs work together to increase their impact and effectiveness and how will the networks sustain their operations after their respective H2020 projects end? Unified under a common umbrella of RI4EU, five DIH networks will share their sustainability plans and lessons learnt in four impact areas: Connectivity, Market Awareness, DIH Operation, Strategic Development and Sustainability.
DIH-HERO is an independent platform which connects Digital Innovation Hubs across Europe to create a sustaining network for all those who are active in the healthcare robotics sector. The project consortium consists of 17 core partners spread across 11 pan-European countries.
The DIH-HERO network will be present with three workshops:
Level of autonomy in healthcare robotics – How far should we go? 28 June, 16:10
This workshop is about the level of autonomy in healthcare robotics. Members of DIH-HERO network from research and industry will offer a deep-dive into their work and challenges faced regarding semi-autonomous and autonomous systems. In a panel discussion the different perspectives of experts and end users will provide further insights into the advantages and disadvantages of autonomy in robotics. They will discuss the next steps needed to implement more of these systems in healthcare institutions and to remove barriers to further develop robotic innovations.
Industry experience with healthcare standards, 29 June, 11:00
Many companies on the healthcare robotics market struggle with a growing number of regulations and standards. This workshop will share and discuss views and experiences from companies regarding best practices in software development and systems interoperability included in the relevant standards to this sector. Results will define requirements for developing conformity tools to assist in the selection of standards for health robotics, and provide some best practices in software development in this area for the certification process.
DIH-HERO Success Stories of Innovation Coaching and Matchmaking, 29 June, 11:40
The aim of the Innovation Coaching offered by the DIH-HERO network is to provide expertise and services to the SMEs in the European healthcare robotics sector, in order to support them to bring novel innovations to the market. During this workshop the DIH-HERO innovation coaches and innovators from the field will present their experiences regarding the challenges faced, the success stories achieved in innovation and matchmaking and the benefits of the Innovation Coaching during the execution of the Technology Demonstrator and Technology Transfer Experiment projects. The audience will interact with the panel discussion to identify market needs and gain further insights on how the innovation coaching, brokerage and other services offered by DIH-HERO could be extended.
GreenBee. Photo: RIMA network
RIMA
RIMA brings together DIHs and Facilitators operating under a common network that allows them to join forces and competences to promote Inspection and Maintenance (I&M) robotics.
The RIMA network will be present in one workshop:
DIH as driver for innovative experimentation: The RIMA Network case, 29 June, 15:50h
In this workshop RIMA project will present the results of the experiments and the successfully implemented methodology that should serve as a roadmap for other DIHs as well as SMEs, to positively impact their respective innovative ecosystems. With this workshop RIMA expects to offer a holistic approach to the field of DIH-supported experimentation in robotics, to allow audiences to gather best practices, inspiration, robotic at I&M literacy, connection with the EU DIH Network, and value propositions to incorporate into their service catalogue. All this will also be available through the launch of the RIMA booklet that will include information on all the different aspects, services and features developed during the project.
TRINITY is a network of multidisciplinary and synergistic local digital innovation hubs (DIHs) composed of research centres, companies and university groups, covering a wide range of topics that can contribute to agile production: advanced robotics as the driving force and digital tools, data privacy and cyber security technologies to support the introduction of advanced robotic systems in the production processes.
Trinity is involved as the organiser of a workshop where they will present the project’s achievements and success stories of SMEs that have been funded by the project.
Sustainability of DIHs, 30 June, 14:30h
The digitalisation of SMEs is key for the European economy to remain competitive. DIHs play an important role in this development, functioning as a kind of one-stop shop to access digital and robotic technologies as well as technical and other services, such as training, funding, or even matchmaking. To provide long-term support, DIHs need to be designed in a sustainable way. This includes the environment, social (networking), and economic factors. TRINITY will discuss these three areas and offer solutions on how a DIH can be resilient and long-lasting. Since sustainability means being flexible and adapting to changing needs, demands and contexts, none of the above areas should be rigid. Therefore, this workshop encourages discussions on how these areas interact and influence each other and how they do not.
Spin Robotics. Photo: Trinity network
agROBOfood
agROBOfood aims to build a European ecosystem for the effective adoption of robotic technologies in the agri-food sector, which in turn will become more efficient and competitive. The network already comprises 49 Digital Innovation Hubs and 12 Competence Centers and keeps growing.
agROBOfood representatives will participate in the following workshops:
Applying collaborative mobile robots in agriculture, 28 June, 10:20h
Collaborative mobile robots in the agricultural sector, enhanced with local intelligence for real-time decision-making, facilitates robust optimisation and self-organisation of farm operations. This workshop discusses research on robust cooperativity of mobile robots with emphasis on architecture design, software design method (model-based, simulation, value sensitive), an agent-based approach and security and safety aspects. The discussion will be triggered by using examples including the DurableCase project, agROBOfood experiences and other projects. A novel approach is explored within the Dutch DurableCASE research project (Durable Cooperative Agrobotics Systems Engineering), a WUR (Wageningen University & Research) knowledge project on cooperative robots and examples from agROBOfood Innovation Experiments.
Challenges in Robotics for Food Processing, 30 June, 14:30h
The spread of robotics in the food industry is necessary to meet the challenges and demands of the 21st century. The goals of this session are to present the latest trends and developments related to robotics in the food industry and discuss the roadmap for future enhancements to these fields.
DIH2
Our role is to facilitate the connections that will enable agile production in factories where speed and versatility are essential to satisfy customer demand. We believe in the power of robotics to transform the agility of manufacturing in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and drive economic growth across the European Union.
DIH2 will be present in the RI4EU’s and TRINITY’s workshops.
Don’t forget to visit RI4EU’s and DIH2’s booths in the exhibition area! See you in Rotterdam!
Header photo by Richard Horvath on Unsplash